Prof. Michael Mann, Penn State University: The Madhouse Effect
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Greed and unbridled capitalism comes at a huge cost to our planet. Geologists know that Post-Pleistocene weather calls for periods of warmth between long ice ages. This warm period may stick around because there are 6 billion people and most would like a car to drive.
The United States has burned, collectively, more total fossil fuels that any other country yet our president and a good portion of the GOP refuse to see this as a problem. Just store more water and don't allow it to run into the ocean! Mindless.
Our forests burn because they were seen as capital and needing saving (so they could be cut and sold strategically) and, for the last 110 years, small fires were put out as soon as possible. Well, now it's all up in smoke. People's homes are in ruins and lives shattered. Runoff from the massive burned forests will clog streams and kill fish.
All we get is a grunt and a few tweets from the Liar In Chief. Pathetic.
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Criminal, that Jerry Brown and his pro-fossil mafia are being allowed to replace California's zero-carbon nuclear plants with fossil fuel gas at the expense of both air quality and climate change.
And ironic, that the output of California solar farms is down by 6% due to smoke from wildfires caused by climate change. It's almost as if the $billions spent on development of solar energy, which now contributes less than 2% of U.S. electricity, has been a waste. Almost exactly, as if.
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Consider how much worse the situation would be if California were blocked from imposing our stricter air quality standards as some would like to do.
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It has always left me flummoxed, why the Academy has never, at least to the best of my knowledge, has not had a category that honors Achievements in Comedy, despite it being a category in all other major awards. For example the Golden Globes, Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (Spoken Word) and The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
Perhaps that would be a better alternative than "Popular Achievement."
Because frankly, some of these "popular" movies were designed be diversions that make money - not emblematic of any discernible form of art.
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These terrible fires, 300+ miles away, already hazing the skies this morning, eclipsing Santa Barbara/Ventura's Thomas decimating fire of just 7 months ago, spewing toxic PM2.5 laced with sulfur, mineral dust and VOCs, are hurting not just people with heart and lung disease, but contributing to 14% of all new diabetes cases: 150k in the U.S, annually, according to WHO.
Maybe the houseplants that clean the air, absorbing pollutants inside (some ficus, palm, fern) can teach us something about what we can do outside.
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Look close at the photo at the top of the piece. It says a lot about the bigger problem. Overweight guy on a sleek boat with a huge polluting engine that's only for recreation. No wonder the sky is brown.
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The geography impedes air flow. Mountain ranges, high ones line the state. Not infrequently, the air flows in masses over or under other masses and sometimes that means hotter air over cooler air. This is called an inversion later. The air below does not rise and so is trapped under the warmer air above it. It’s these kinds of conditions which makes Californians demand vehicles and utilities that produce less pollution. When these fires burn, the smoke fills the air many miles away, where the fires cannot be seen and even the billowing smoke is not visible.
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We live about eight miles east of Los Angeles, and are now experiencing the worst air quality that I can recall since I was a child and we lived with "smog alerts"--and I'm in my 60's. I fear that one day I'll once again feel that tickling constriction in my lungs upon taking a deep breath, as the horizon line grows a distinctive, unfortunate brown,
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When my daughter and her family moved to Los Angeles from the east coast five years ago, I worried a bit about earthquakes. Little did I know I should be worrying about wildfires instead! Last year, the fire actually crept into the edge of L.A., but fortunately for me not into their neighborhood. But the air quality was so strongly impaired that my grandchildren were imprisoned inside their respective day care programs, not allowed to go outside to play in the playground. And this year the wildfire season is on its way to being even worse.
It angers me that young kids are deprived of the basic pleasure of playing outdoors. Not to mention the people who lose their homes or even their lives! But what angers me even more is the people who see this on the news and continue to claim that global warming isn’t happening, or if it is, isn’t worth thinking about or taking action against. Even my five-year-old grandson can see it when he asks why the sky is all dark and smoky. The time is now to acknowledge that even if we may not know exactly what to do about it, climate change is happening and poses dangers every bit as real as earthquakes.
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It is not just the San Joaquin Valley which is experiencing smoke from the fires it's the whole bay area. Yesterday when I came over Route 17 from Santa Cruz and then drove North on 85 and 101 the coastal mountains were hidden behind a thick haze. I could not smell the fire but I could sure see its effect.
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The San Joaquin Valley traps and holds air pollutants, but its voters and their elected representatives support an administration that is turning back the clock on clean air policies pioneered in the 70s by Republicans and Democrats working together for the common good. The San Joaquin Valley needs clean water to grow its crops, yet its farmer voters choose to grow high-water-requirement crops like almonds to sell to China, waste water by irrigating during the 100 degree days (yes I have seen that routinely) and supporting fracking, which uses enormous quantities of water while polluting the ground water, cheered on by and their elected representatives who blame Nancy Pelosi and Diane Feinstein for favoring salmon over the poor farmers. No sympathy for the farmers from this Californian.
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When do you suppose farmers are supposed to irrigate their crops? When it's cold and rainy? Of course farmers are irrigating on hot days, that's when crops need to be irrigated.
Farmers grow crops that the market demands and that grow well in their region. It's called capitalism, and it's how our economy works.
The San Joaquin valley generates very little pollution; most of it blows in from the heavily populated Bay Area or comes from the tailpipes of passing cars on freeways. But our Clean Air Act regulates only pollution that is locally generated. So the actual polluters -- wealthy folks in coastal California -- get a free pass while the people suffering the pollution in the valleys are regulated out of business because the law is defective.
Let me guess where you live..
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@Eero, fine, then learn to give up your fancy tossed green salads and steak and learn to live off of eating cactus and keep your water to sail your houseboat on.
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Anyone with a garden knows you don’t water in the heat of the day. The much needed and scarce resource just evaporates. AND the farming practices in the Central Valley contribute to vast acres of land that are not planted nor irrigated that blow dust everywhere. That dust is also an environmental hazard due to chemicals and pesticides used in previous planting’s. Sure the rich people are to blame for their self indulgent consumption of scarce resources but by the way the agribusinesses of the enteral valley should be included in that condemnation. Oh and the Resnicks are in a category all of their own.
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